Cream of Finland

Last night I went out to try the famous Finnish sauna. We went to Jen’s friend’s place. His building had a sauna on the roof, with an excellent view of the city. We sat in the sauna and broiled. I think it was set for about 90 degrees Celsius, which I...

Booze Cruise

I’m back from my cruise to Stockholm. We left on Tuesday afternoon, after my walk around Helsinki’s centre. It was a two-tram ride down to the Viking cruise terminal, where we boarded the M/S Mariella. She was a large ferry, with two decks for cars, trucks...

Photo journal

I took the tram down to the market at the bottom of Hameentie (Jen’s street) this morning then got out for a walk around town. My goal was to get lost, get found, then get to the train station. Along the way I’d take pictures. Starting from my dismay in...

Reach out and touch someone

I got my IP phone working! The story is that I didn’t notice that my AC adapter for the VOIP box only supports 120V AC current, and the current here is 220V. Normally, these AC adapters can deal with both, so I just plugged it in. Of course it stopped working...

Slums of Helsinki

We went for a car tour of Helsinki today. It’s a very pleasant place. The streets are wide, clean and well-maintained. Outside of the centre of town, the city gradually merges with nature. Large stands of old growth forest are interspersed with the suburbs, and...